Bhubaneswar: The state Congress on Monday said the Biju Janata Dal government in Odisha had failed to address major issues during its 19-year rule.
“The BJD government completed the fourth year of its fourth term today. The chief minister apprised the people of the achievements his government has made so far and assured them of fulfilling all promises made in the party manifesto for the 2014 Assembly elections. But the bottom line is that the achievement of the government during its tenure is negligible,” OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik told the media here.
He said the rate of unemployment has gone high in the state while the plight of the farmers from bad to worse. There is no improvement in the socio-economic condition of the tribals and the Dalits. There is a constant threat to the life and safety of the women and the girl children.
“The tall talks of both the Centre and the state government are nothing more than a publicity stunt to keep their political ambition intact and remain in power. If the people become aware of the intention of the government, things might take a different turn,” Patnaik observed.
While praising the chief minister who has been adjudged as the best chief minister and administrator in the country, the OPCC president, however, said going by the statistics, Odisha is the poorest state.
On the other hand, senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra snubbed the BJP, which has framed 36 mega corruption charges against the BJD.
“The manner in which the saffron party has framed corruption charges against its erstwhile alliance partner is utterly ridiculous. It is like the proverbial ‘the pot calls the kettle black’. Let the BJP say about the volume of corruption it had shared with the BJD during the nine-year alliance rule. This should be brought to the notice of the people,” Mishra pointed out.
Coming down heavily on the BJP, BJD leader Arun Sahu said the saffron party staunchly follows the theory of Joseph Goebbels (the German Nazi politician and Reich minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany who was one of Adolf Hitler’s close associates) that a lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.
“The BJP leaders are under the impression that the manner in which they have applied the Goebbels theory in other states and unseated the ruling party, they will resort to the same in Odisha. But they should know that the people of Odisha are not gullible as they are well aware of the modus operandi of the BJP,” Sahu added.
